Washington Wizards: 3 players who may not be back next season

1. Ian Mahinmi

What a ride it was. The end of this season marks the true end of an era in more than one sense. The final free agent signing of the Ernie Grunfeld regime is most likely going to be out the door. For those of you who may have forgotten (which I’m sure most Wizards fans have not), Ian Mahinmi was signed during the disastrous summer of 2016 to a 4-year, $64 million dollar deal.

As expected from the day he signed that contract, Mahinmi did not live up to his price tag. I will say that it is rather hard to blame Mahinmi for never becoming the player his contract suggested. Nobody in their right mind thought that he was worth that much money as a slightly above-average backup prior to playing in D.C. Nobody except for Ernie Grunfeld.

Injuries plagued Mahinmi in his first few seasons with the Wizards and by the time he was fully healthy, the team started to get younger and for the most part, did not have Ian in the rotation or in their future plans.

The purpose of this article is not to dwell on the ‘what could have been’, but there are a ton of ‘what ifs’ around Mahinmi. Could he have helped the Wall/Beal duo at their peak if healthy?

Now that he’s 33-years-old, there is clearly not much need to retain Mahinmi’s services even for vet minimum.

Ian Mahinmi exemplified all the major qualities you could ask for as a teammate. He was a good veteran presence for some of the young Wizards big men and never once did he cause a stir due to playing time. It cannot be easy going through what he went through during his time in Washington, as he notched DNP after DNP, yet Ian still showed what it’s like to be a true pro.

With a new regime in place, we can now close the book on Ian Mahinmi.